1968 Austin 35 still loved by John

Former meter inspector John Hughes is known as "the man with the van" around his Black Country suburb.

The 75-year-old from Wolverhampton so loved the 1968 Austin 35 that he used for his job with the Midland Electricity Board that he bought it.

But despite being its sole driver for five years, Mr Hughes still had to go out and bid for it alongside other members of the public when it came up for auction in Birmingham in 1973.

• View more pictures of John with his MEB van in our gallery to your right

Happily his £110 offer was successful and the van has been used as the family's back-up runaround ever since.

Mr Hughes, of Penn, said: "They replaced the company fleet with Vauxhall Vivas, which were technically more advanced but not as well-made.

"I just didn't like the idea of it being sold to someone who was going to use it for 12 months and run it into the ground.

"The chief engineer tipped me off when and where it was being auctioned off and I made sure I was there."

He bought the van at British Car Auctions in Bromford Bridge, Birmingham, paying 10 per cent VAT and a £2.20 handling fee on top, making a grand total of £123.20.

As a van, it was not the most practical choice of family motor but Mr Hughes said it was used more as a back-up vehicle when there was luggage and other bulky items to move.

Then in 1984 he sent it off for a full recondition after finding rust in the driver's footwell. The work was carried out by Bedworth Car Valet in Warwickshire run by a couple of Austin 35 enthusiasts.

In latter years he has regularly entered it in vintage car rallies, and in 1990 was asked to lead the Lord Mayor's Procession in Birmingham. It has clocked up 97,000 miles over the years.

"I don't go so far now, just to shows in the local area like Shareshill and Stourbridge and I do the odd garden fete when people ask", he said.

Father-of-two Mr Hughes said his old firm used to replace its entire fleet every five to seven years, and although the vehicles clocked up a lot of miles, they had many more years of service left in them.

When he had the van rebuilt, it was also resprayed in its original livery of cream top, green bottom with red band.

In 1987, to make the look complete, the Board's transport manager also gave him a couple of old transfers bearing the MEB's original insignia.

In the van Mr Hughes also keeps some old electricity meters and other equipment which is now redundant.

He has amassed a collection of 50 meters - some dating back to the 1930s.

His collection started when he removed an old meter dating from before the board was nationalised and was told to scrap it.

"I thought it would be a real waste," he said. "So I decided to keep it, and all of the others I've kept would also have been scrapped.

"I think people will be interested in them come a few years from now, so somebody has got to keep hold of them. I have them stored up in my garage.

"There are also a lot of other little electrical bits and pieces that I could have collected.

"When people stop to talk to me about the van at rallies, I open up the back and show them the tools of my old job. It's a bit of added interest."

Mr Hughes, who was an installation inspector for the last 25 years, travelled all over Wolverhampton and South Staffordshire, eventually retiring in 1993 after clocking up 42 years with the company.

He said: "I did have a desk at the Major Street office but most of the time I was on the road."

"When I meet old colleagues, they all ask me: 'Have you still got that van?'"